Capita selecta
Chapter 9. Conversion of Augustine
7.
Little more need be said to conclude this
sketch of an eventful history. Many years had not passed before Valerius,
feeling the infirmities of age, appointed Augustine as his coadjutor in the see
of Hippo, and in this way secured his succeeding him on his death; an object
which he had much at heart, but which he feared might be frustrated by
Augustine's being called to the government of some other church. This elevation
necessarily produced some change in the accidents of his life, but his personal
habits remained the same. He left his monastery, as being too secluded for an
office which especially obliges its holder to the duties of hospitality; and he
formed a religious and clerical community in the episcopal house. This
community consisted chiefly of presbyters, deacons, and sub-deacons, who gave
up all personal property, and were supported upon a common fund. He himself
strictly conformed to the rule he imposed on others. Far from appropriating to
any private purpose any portion of his ecclesiastical income, he placed the
whole charge of it in the hands of his clergy, who took by turns the yearly
management of it, he being auditor of their accounts. He never indulged himself
in house or land, considering the property of the see as little his own as
those private possessions, which he had formerly given up. He employed it, in
one way or other, directly or indirectly, as if it were the property of the
poor, the ignorant, and the sinful. He had "counted the cost," and he
acted like a man whose slowness to begin a course was a pledge of zeal when he
had once begun it.
